Articles on CALL in English Learning and Teaching

The articles that are given to us in assisting our understanding are very intriguing in a sense that the two articles give deeper insight on the details of the language learning and teaching in CALL. The articles; A Review of Technology Choice for Teaching Language Skills and Areas in the CALL Literature by Glenn Stockwell and Effective Uses of Computer-Based Softwware in Teaching the Listening Skill in ESL by Normah Yusof explain how the computer applications are used in teaching specific language skills.

The first article basically discuss about the selection of technology in teaching language skills. It also try to examine what kind of technological approaches have been used to achieve learning objectives. Mainly the article talks about what types of technologies are selected in teaching specific language skills and areas, whether or not the researchers have a clear idea in mind in their selection of the technologies, and whether the researchers highlight the distinguished features of the technology used as compared to non-CALL approaches. Next, CALL is explained as a technological field and as for the method of the research, all articles from 2001 to 2005 from the four major CALL English language journals which are the CALICO Journal, the CALL Journal, Language Learning and Technology, and ReCALL were examined. The language skills like grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, reading, writing, and listening are explained in details.

Meanwhile, the second article by Normah Yusof talks about how the computer is seen as a great assistant to teach listening skill in ESL at higher education institutions. The main objective is to find out whether computer-based software can be used as a teacher Replacement or Supplement in teaching listening skill. It also reviewed some articles to support the notion. Listening activities using CD-ROMS is used as one of the method in the experiment and through the experimental investigation, it is justified that the use of computers in teaching the skill is effective. However, it is not to the extent of being a teacher's replacement, but rather it is a teacher supplement in achieving the learning objective. 

From the two articles we have learned how CALL assist greatly and is also widely used in language learning and teaching some levels of education.

Reflection on CMC

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) is a communication that occurs via computer mediated-formats or in other words is a communication that takes place between human beings via at least two or more networked computers. For instant, back then people use email, chat room and text message in an engaged communication. Nowadays, with the rise of technology, people have been using new software that has been equipped with video conferencing such as Skypes.

These CMC for instance can be like Email, which is the most popular Internet tool that is used widely all around the globe in order to exchange messages between individual. Mailing lists is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. Usenet newsgroup is a medium where users read and post messages called articles or posts, and collectively termed news to one or more categories, known as newsgroups while Usenet resembles a bulletin board system (BBS) in many respects and is the precursor to Internet forums that are widely used today.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is an application layer protocol that facilitates communication in the form of text. The chat process works on a server or client networking model. IRC clients are computer programs that a user can install on their system. Videoconferencing  is a means by which small groups of geographically distant people can hold discussions in real time, during which they are able to hear and see each other and share various other types of data. Last but not least, Hybrid systems is a system that combine threaded discussion lists such as WebBoard.

In addition, there are two forms of CMC which are Synchronous and Asynchronous. Synchronous is a real time, instantaneous communication such as real time Chatting (IRC) and Video Conferencing. People connect to each other in a real time in an instant messaging or video conferencing. In constant, Asynchronous is a non-real time communication such as E-mail and Bulletin Board. People engaged in a communication not in an instant messaging but in a continuous messaging which called as non real-time communication which means that users doesn’t have to be online on the same time.

Apart from that, the synchronous mode of CMC is indeed a combination of written and oral styles of communication. It involves emotions through the visualization of Emoticons in order to show writer’s emotions or motives. ‘Cryptic language’ is also used widely in synchronous mode of CMC which have different denotations when different cases are used. Such cryptic language is like ASAP which stands for ‘as soon as possible’.

Reflection on MALL

MALL actually refers to the Mobile Assisted Language Learning which is explained by a PhD student of Dr. Rozina, Tengku Nahzatul Shima bt Tengku Paris. Nowadays, everyone depends on life in social devices which are portable and easy hand-carry to almost everywhere we go. Why should we waste the time by spending on social media when there could be various of applications which could provide the language leaning experience? This not only would teach the children creative thinking but also make the teaching way more interesting than just teacher-students technique of teaching in the classroom. Furthermore, this application would definitely help the parents to train their children to make use of the leisure time by learning the language skill via gadgets as well as electronic devices wherever they want.

Tengku Nahzatul says, Malaysia of Education recently applies a new teaching system, which is Malaysia Education Blueprint and it has been started since last year  and expected to be used until 2025. She explains further about the rationale for this mission is to meet the global standard that could suit the needs of our students. And the mobile phones are the most useful tools to substitute the books.

There are many advantages from the MALL that could be required by the children which are for; mobility & accessibility, affordability & availability, flexibility in learning, interactivity with surrounding, authenticity of the material, and awareness of current situations. However, Tengku Nahzatul also highlights on he severe disadvantages of the system where it could fun tool, fear of change in the surrounding. the profession at stoke by the teachers, interruption of language learning activity and technical features which cover the availability of network as well as the battery durability.

She also manages to introduce her board game where we can use it to learn grammar through board games and also the application that she has created based on the skills that are required by the children regarding to their ability.

Reflection On Learning Applications

Based on our friends' presentation on their lesson plan, we have discovered many new information and helpful computer learning applications that are available. Some of them are very educational and can greatly assist students in their learning process. We have listed down three of the applications that we find interesting.


ESL Games Plus

(Figure 1)

ESL GAMES PLUS (Figure 1) is an application which focuses on the grammar skill of learners by which it is claimed to be the most suited application in terms of behaviourism. This is owing to, the fundamental approaches of behaviourism are basically deal with drilling, learning through training as well as acquiring knowledge by means of reinforcement.   

Over and above, some of the grammar skills that learners may acquire are subject-verb agreement, countable and uncountable nouns and not to mention, possessive adjectives. Thereupon, this application is regarded to be exceedingly astute due to the captivating learning method, also, the techniques of drilling that are applied. Below shows the example of teaching processes which are provided by this application:

(Figure 2)

  

(Figure 3)

At first learner or player needs to roll the dice in order to advance, then, when the player is stopped according to the number that shows up on the dice, grammar question will pop up and the player needs to choose the correct answer (Figure 2 & 3). Correct answer will assist player to move forward, yet, wrong answer will cause the player to move backward and stay at the previous box. Hence, this game assists learners in terms of exercising which is ideally suitable for acquiring grammar skills. 

     

Kahoot

(Figure 4)

 KAHOOT IT & GET KAHOOT (Figure 4) is another interesting online learning game site where students can choose from a set of interactive exercises provided by the teacher. On the other hand, teacher can customize the questions that will be answered by the students in the way they want. Not only that, teachers can also access to the numbers of correct answers that the students get while they are playing the game. Figure below illustrates the students - teacher interaction in the midst of the game. 

(Figure 5)

Teachers can choose from any subject that they want and what kind of question that will be asked. This application falls under the communicative theoretical framework of Computer Assisted Language Learning. This is because there is a kind of interactive communication between the students and the teacher where the teacher can monitor and get feedback on how much the students understand the topic being taught by instant results of the quiz answered by the students. However, in this application, the teachers' role is not completely unneeded as the answers provided is objective and teachers will later need to explain further to the students. Apart from that, teachers are also clearly needed to provide questions relevant to the lesson being taught.

SpeakingPal

(Figure 6)

Meanwhile, Speaking Pal (Figure 6) helps to furnish the best learning process in respect of speaking and listening on the grounds that it provides a collaboration approach between learners and application which is exquisitely meet the requirements of communicative techniques in Computer Assisted Language Leraning (CALL).

This can be clearly proven when learners grasp English as a second language through self discovery. In other words, the application used will be considered to be the 'pupil' instead of tutor. It will also serve as the knowledge provider for learners. Besides, the knowledge gained by learners will be based on their own emphasis through which the focus of studying was on the use of form rather than on the forms themselves.

(Figure 7)

(Figure 8)

(Figure 9)

As in Speaking Pal, learners will be taught to listen to a brief conversation between two people (Figure 7), as yet, after that, learners will have to communicate with the application themselves to the same degree like they are having a role play (Figure 8). Further, short dialogues are provided for learners in which learners' voices are recorded when speaking. At the end of the conversation, each dialogues that has been spoken by learners will be  given a rate and lowest rate of speaking sound will be focused on for correction (Figure 9). Learners will be able to listen to the right version of sound and it will give chances for learners to improve the way they speak according to the corrected version of the voice. Ergo, this application of Speaking Pal may assist students in the matter of communicative approach as elaborated in CALL.         

Reflection on Lesson Plan

Basically, our lesson plan is conducted for 2 periods of classes which is estimately around 80 minutes. We were assigned to do a lesson plan based on a READING skill whereby we decided to apply the procedure upon form 3 students. As a matter of fact, we focused on a reading comprehension of a short narrative entitled "Growing up in Kalapana" by Stuart Baum. 

Other than that, our lesson plan is based on several computer online applications such as:

• Website of the short narrative itself - http://www.stuartstories.com/stories/growing_up_in_Kalapana.html

• Goole Translate - https://www.google.com/#q=google+translate

• Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary - http://www.merriam-webster.com/

We expected to witness the students' ability in reading the text with phonemic fluency, comprehend the meaning of the individual vocabularies, retell, describe the main events and answer questions with regards to the text. Further, we decided to do some exercises with the students such are tongue twister game, read the text out loud in the class, write down unfamiliar words on Google Translate and Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary which once they had written the words, they can learn the correct pronunciation through the sound that are available with those online applications in order to assist them in getting the right way or pronouncing words as well as present the main events from their reading of the story into a form of chronological drawings or simple sketches according to their creativity. Also, we would give the students a reading comprehension exercise as a homework to be done at home. 

However, there were several flaws that we should improve as to gain the best results in this reading skill lesson, they are, we should have find online application that display the story of "Growing up in Kalapana" together with an audio which to assist students in making the right pronunciation. Besides that, we should instruct them to complete the drawing activity as a homework and make the reading comprehension exercise as one of the activities in class. Thus, this new way of teaching would provide a better outcome rather than the initial one.

Throughout the whole progress of completing our task, we could say that, we had grabbed so many things in terms of critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, management and accuracy. This is owing to, best results won't come with littlest effort. We need to pour our hearts and souls on every task that we get. Consequently, the weaknesses are from us yet the virtues are from Allah S.W.T. Hence, we will definitely learn from our mistakes and make it as a lesson.

LESSON PLAN (Reading Skill)

 LESSON PLAN FOR COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN LANGUAGE STUDIES 

(ENGL 4740)

Lecturer’s name: Dr. Rozina

Teacher’s names: 1.      Nurul Nabilah Binti Mustaffa 2.      Nurfarahani Binti Zubbri 3.      Sharifah Fatin Athira Bt Syed Uzir 4.      Wardah Binti Ismail		Date: 6th October 2016, Wednesday
Subject: English Language		Time: 2 periods (40 minutes + 40 minutes)
Level of Students: Form 3
Language Skill: Reading	Language Focus: Reading comprehension on a short narrative
Topic: Reading English short narratives; Stuart Baum’s “Growing up in Kalapana”
General Objective: To expose the students with the proper pronunciation of words in the text used. To enable student to learn new vocabularies and comprehend their uses in the short   narrative. To help the students get a comprehensive understanding of the text and later process the knowledge into the form of a creative description.
Learning Outcome: At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to: 1.      Read the text with phonemic fluency and comprehend the meaning of the individual vocabularies and the story in its entirety. 2.      Retell and describe the main events and some of the details of the story. 3.      Answer questions with regards to the text. 2
Materials LCD Projector Computers with Internet access Writing paper Pencils and erasers Manila cards
Websites/ Computer Applications Used Stuartstories.com (http://www.stuartstories.com/stories/growing_up_in_Kalapana.html) Google Translate Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/)

Reflection on MINECRAFT for language learning

Minecraft is a game known since 2009 which have occupied both children and adults in hours of enjoyable play with creative thinking. It has grabbed many intention from people of various ages to sit in front of their computer and play the game all day long. However, Minecraft has published the new edition called Minecraft - Education Edition mainly for those who wants to use a game as a platform to learn English in another passionate way. What are special about Minecraft are that the game provide learners with whatever a learner wants it to be. They can set the game in the way they need to in order to direct them toward goals to be accomplished, unlike with other games that are not so flexible.

In addition, learners get to learn new words with meaning from the directions given in the game. For example, they learn word like 'crashing' from the action of the player himself in the game. It provides them clear picture about the real meaning of some words that learners are not familiar with. Besides, Minecraft also let learners develop both academic and life skills through pursuing their curiosity in enjoyable discovery learning. In other words, learners get to learn language more persistently in order to accomplished their mission in the game. Overall, Minecraft is another good platform to learn English for those who really loves game.